S.C. scuttles over deepening permit

COLUMBIA — The South Carolina Savannah River Commission voted to ask the state’s attorney general to represent them in a challenge against a sister agency, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Control.

The river commission declared Monday that the state environmental board’s approval of a water quality permit issued to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday was “issued improperly and has no effect of law.”

It is unclear whether Monday’s vote means the controversy will advance to a state administrative law judge, an appeals court or federal court.

On Thursday the DHEC board approved the compromise conditions that had been presented to them by DHEC agency staff as part of the ongoing effort to deepen the Savannah River from 42 feet to 48 as part of the Savannah harbor deepening project. The environmental board’s action came after the staff had recommended on Sept. 30 that the Corps’ request be denied.

The compromise agreement must be signed by environmental board chairman Allen Amsler by 5 p.m. Tuesday or the corps would get the permit by default. The agency’s staff was drafting the agreement and planed to have him sign it Tuesday.

Mike McShane, former chairman of South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources board, told the river commission Monday the Savannah River is “already a river under stress.”

He called a proposed oxygen-injection system designed to counteract damage to the river “speculative technology” and said, “It’s not measurably going to help the dissolved oxygen levels in its current state, much less with (proposed) additional depth.”

He said Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline added urgency to the situation.

As for Thursday’s concession by Georgia to preserve an additional 1,500 acres of marshland to offset habitat that will be affected by the dredging, McShane said a number of concerns remain about how that would be done.

He also pointed to DHEC’s deferral to the National Marine Fisheries’ declaration that the deepening project would not harm the shortnose sturgeon.

“As your state resources agency, we should have some opportunity to have comment on that,” said McShane.

Others weighed in before the panel went into closed session to consider the request for legal help.

“There are literally billions of dollars in economic activity at stake,” said state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-37th District.

The lawmaker, who represents part of Charleston County and chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, has been a chief opponent of the Georgia Ports Authority’s plans to deepen the Savannah port, citing its possible impact on South Carolina’s competitiveness.

Georgia’s $600 million river deepening project is considered its most crucial economic development project. The intent is to prepare the channel for larger ships expected after the expanded Panama Canal opens in 2014.

After the vote Monday Grooms stopped short of echoing the calls of state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-27th District, for the dismissal of the DHEC board and said only that he was “extremely disappointed” with its approval of the permit.

The current outcry is only the latest expressed by Palmetto State officials over Georgia’s plans.

The members of the DHEC board were appointed by Republican Gov. Nikki Haley. Sheheen was Haley’s Democratic opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial election. Grooms was among Haley’s Republican rivals during the GOP gubernatorial primary race.

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